Distribution strips serve for the distribution of electrical energy to electrical and/or electronic devices or structural units which are arranged in a device or a server cabinet. Expressed in general terms, a distribution strip supplies electrical consumers with energy. Devices or structural units supplied in this way are for example servers such as blade servers, telecommunications devices, climate control devices or switches. A distribution strip can also be described as a power strip or power distribution unit (PDU).
Generic distribution strips comprise an upper, a lower and two lateral elongated side faces as well as a first and a second end face, which together define an inner chamber. In most cases a feed cable is provided on the first end face for supplying electrical energy. This feed cable serves to connect the distribution strip to an external energy source, for example a power network. Furthermore, such distribution strips comprise connecting means provided on the upper side face, to which connecting means the electrical consumers to be supplied can be connected for power supply.
Such distribution strips are often arranged vertically in a device or server cabinet. The feed cable must hereby be laid through the device cabinet and led out of said cabinet for connection to a power connection, such as a socket. In the same way the feed cable can be connected to the building or computer centre power supply.
Where the feed cable leaves the distribution strip on an end face thereof, however, problems can arise with the guiding of the feed cable in the device or server cabinet. Exit on the end face requires either a higher structural height of the server cabinet or a very high or distinct flexibility of the cable in order to be able to lay the cable with sufficient degrees of freedom.
A high flexibility of the feed cable is not always present, however, as relatively thick and thus rigid cables must often be used in order to adequately feed energy into the distribution strip. Different configurations of such distribution strips are thus known, in which for example the direction of exit of the feed cable is not formed along the first end face, but instead on a side face, for example the upper side face. Such constructions do indeed facilitate a low structural height of the server or device cabinet, but also offer low flexibility when using the distribution strip. This means for example that a respective individual distribution strip must be available for incorporation to the left or to the right in the cabinet.
Other constructions are also known, in which a plurality of feed cables are guided out of the distribution strip centrally on a side face. Such a construction is described for example in EP 2321882 B1.
Furthermore distribution strips are known which have a complex rotation mechanism for the feed cable on an end face. The rotation mechanism requires, however, relatively great resources and is often prone to error.